T he discovery that nitric oxide plays many fundamental physiological roles has aroused interest in the structures, electronic properties, and reactivities of metal-nitrosyl complexes. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] The chemistry between NO and organometallic complexes, especially reactions that lead to formation of new carbonnitrogen bonds, is of considerable interest because organic nitroso compounds have been demonstrated to be a class of attractive electrophiles in many carbon-nitrogen and/or carbon-oxygen bond forming reactions. 14-20 In the past few decades, investigations on the insertion of NO into metal-alkyl and metal-aryl bonds to form C-nitroso complexes provided insightful results for the development of metal-mediated organic transformation reactions, 21-36 and the alkyl/aryl moiety migration to the coordinated NO ligand, i.e. R-M-(NO) þ L f L-M-N(dO)R, has been demonstrated to be a critical step in carbon-nitrogen bond formation. Nitrosonium ion (NO þ ), a close relative of NO, is known to react substitutionally with metal complexes to give metal-nitrosyl systems, 8,37-44 although there are several examples proposing that NO þ can insert into metal-carbon bonds in an intermolecular fashion. [25][26][27]31 We herein present a systematic investigation of the reaction between NO þ and 2-phenylpyridine anion (phpy)-ligated cyclometalated ruthenium(II) complexes, which demonstrates for the first time that NO þ inserts into a Ru II -aryl phpy bond to give 2-(2-nitrosophenyl)pyridine (NO-phpy)-coordinated complexes. Experimental evidence supports a direct bimolecular NO þ insertion mechanism, i.e. M-R þ NO þ f [M-N(dO)-R] þ , but not an intramolecular migratory insertion mechanism for the insertion reactions in this work. Moreover, theoretical calculations reveal that direct NO þ insertion into the Ru-C bond may be rationalized as a frontier orbital interaction between the [Ru-aryl]-based HOMO of the Ru(II) complexes and the LUMO of the NO þ . Unlike many literature examples, the non-NO-ligated complexes [Ru(phpy)([9]aneS3)(L)] þ ([9]aneS3 = 1,4,7-trithiacyclononane) were employed to react with NO þ in this study; this can reduce ambiguity in mechanism evaluations. When excess [NO][BF 4 ] (5-fold) was added to [Ru(phpy)([9]aneS3)(solv)] þ (1-solv; solv = CH 3 CN, EtOH) in CH 3 CN under argon at room temperature, the solution changed from yellow to dark red immediately. The dark red product isolated (85% yield) was found to be [Ru(NO-phpy)-([9]aneS3)(CH 3 CN)] 2þ (2-CH 3 CN; NO-phpy = 2-(2-nitrosophenyl)pyridine) by 1 H and 13 C NMR spectroscopy, X-ray crystallography, and elemental analysis (Scheme 1). This reactivity is different from that for other ruthenium(II) complexes which react with NO þ substitutionally to give the ligand-substituted Runitrosyl products. 37,38,40,41,43 Reaction between the S-bound dmso complex [Ru(phpy)([9]aneS3)(dmso)] þ (1-dmso) and [NO]-[BF 4 ] in CH 3 CN also gave 2-CH 3 CN in 80% yield.The X-ray crystal structure for [2-CH 3 CN](PF 6 ) 2 3 CH 3 CN represents the...